Faithfull FAIPLANE3 No.3 Finishing Plane – Precision Machined for Hard & Soft Woods

For beginners: A fine first plane. You won't still have it if you ever become professional because it is not a "professional" plane, but it is perfectly adequate for DIY and probably most tradesman. To me, the most important question is do you really want a number 3? Unless you have very small hands or do a lot of small work, a number 4 would probably be better and it is pointless to have both. For the experts who have pointed out its problems: Are the defects really that serious? Paint splashes can be scraped off the frog mating surfaces, the handles can be tightened, and all blades must be honed before use anyway. After this, it cuts beautifully (at least mine does). True, the frog adjustment range is small, but how much adjustment do you need on a smoothing plane? The depth adjustment wheel is not capable of fully withdrawing the blade, but I have used it for several months without realising so is it really so important? It takes only a second to loosen the brass knob and pull the blade back by hand if you ever need to. I don't like the 2-part stamped steel yoke, which WILL fall apart one day, and the pressed steel lateral adjuster lever which will eventually need straightening (although it is not as soft and floppy as many other cheap planes). But these issues will only bite you if you use it a lot. Edit: someone else suggested grinding 2mm off the end of the cap iron to solve the blade withdrawal problem, and this has worked perfectly for me. Would I buy it again? No. For only a little more money I would get a vintage Stanley on Ebay which will still be good when it is time to pass it to your grandchildren. But it is pretty.

It's OK. Not perfect, you'll need to flatten the sole and maybe the frog too. But it's sturdy, blade is good quality, sharpens OK. But for this price, I guess it's forgivable :) It is my first hand plane and I didn't want to spend a fortune. So I got a working plane along with the experience on how to fine-tune it. But it can work out of the box too, just not great, you won't get really nice shavings without the extra work.

I like the old Bailey design of smoothing planes and have built up a small collection of them over the years (mainly with the Stanley name on the main casting) but I wanted a new size 3 plane and being aware that the current Stanley quality is not as good as my old original classics I decided to give this budget price plane a go. The plane arrived this afternoon and I was eager to unpack it and see what I had got for my money! Firstly the cardboard box was undamaged and the plane inside the box was well oiled and wrapped in a plastic bag so I took it out of the bag and gave it a good wipe over so that it could be handled without getting too messy! Once the protective oil had been wiped off the nicely finished plane could be seen and checked over. The wooden handles are a pleasant bonus - I much prefer them to the moulded plastic types that are more often found on the rival budget planes (and even on the more expensive Stanley branded planes too!) as they give a much nicer "feel" - not unlike my first Stanley Number 4 smoothing plane that I bought in the 1960's and still have now! Taking the main blade out of the plane to wipe the oil off and check it over was so easy - the large knurled brass knob is much easier to undo than the traditional lever fixing method - even if it does not look as aesthetically pleasing - it is easier to work with and more "adjustable" for tension setting as I can decide just how much pressure I feel is needed to hold the blade assembly in place by the number of turns I put on the knurled brass knob. The chip breaker is stamped to show that the blade has been ground at a 25 degree angle and the printed box ( this adequately replaces a printed instruction leaflet) advises that a 30 degree angle should be honed onto the tip of the blade before use - pretty much a standard requirement for any new smoothing plane. Everything about this small finishing plane is better quality than the £20 price tag may lead you to expect so it is a real gem at a modest price and I look forward to honing the blade and shaving some wood with it. The ONLY slight disappointment is that it does not come in a wooden box like the Number 4 and Number 5 Faithfull planes do - but for the money it cannot be beaten.

Looks nice and feels nice in the hand. But..it is going to require a lot of effort to make it usable. The blade needs sharpening as expected, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. The cap iron needs a lot of work to fit it to the blade, and if it's tight enough not to slip, it bends the blade like a banana...so it won't sit down on the frog. Also the blade won't retract fully into the body...fixing that is going to take some thought. It's a shame because it's a nice tool, spoiled somewhat by lack of attention to detail

I came into the construction industry as an apprentice carpenter at the age o14 in 1952 making me nearly 80 years old, when ever I bought some tools I was shown how to set them up, any form of planes it was first strip them down and lay all the parts on some form of bench, check the plane over and set the frog if it was not set right, check all the metal base what ever and if it was not true take it back to the local store, I would take the blade from the clamp and hone it up, then put all back together and set it up, but there was never much wrong it was just the way they did it in those days, most tradesmen were very proud of their job and their tools, I still enjoy using my tools where I have many, and i still at my age buy them mostly hand tools although I have battery drills Etc, because I still love working with these. When I saw this plane on Amazon I read some of the reviews that was being wrote, many not so very kind, but any how I decided to buy one at the price I felt I could not go wrong, well it came in a few days and was left in my side passage as requested, when I opened the package I was so amazed at what I saw, I sat there looking at this plane and thought what a wonderful looking plane it was, I just could believe how well built it was, every thing what as a plane should be, I stripped it down and checked the base and then the sides, 100% true and very smooth on all surfaces, it was perfect, I honed the blade and set it up, I found a nice piece of timber and made a few plane strokes, it was beautiful, I stood there and went all over the plane and felt what a good product Faithfull had made, and what a price, I decided then to give it a shoot out against a Record No4 & a Stanley No4 giving them both a quick honing to start with, after going over the same piece of timber with the three planes I could not find any difference between the three if them, the No3 Faithfull held its self against the Record and Stanley No4 with no problem at all, it is truly a good product from Faithfull, at first I thought what are some of these other users doing, this does puzzle indeed, now the blade has to stand up to the test of time which I see no reason why it should not, yes I would recommend this plane to any one with some a common respect for tools and who just look for all the positives and not always the negatives to sound good, I like this No3 plane so much that I have decided to by a Faithfull low angle bladed block plane for when looking at the finish photograghs on Amazon, it also looks a nice plane to have, and I like the low angle design, Regards: Don

A lot of plane for not a lot of money. These are fashioned exactly after the Stanley Bailey planes of old, using almost exactly the same castings. Any of these low priced planes likely comes from the same Chinese manufacturer be they Silverline, Faithful etc. What I personally look for is wooden rather than plastic handles - this one fits the bill perfectly. It’s weighty and quite robust. It is NOT setup for work and requires finishing. This is marked on the box and instructions. The bevel is machine ground to 30 degrees and you will need to finish it to 25 degrees to get a working setup. This is standard of planes at this price point, you’d have to spend multiples of this to get a ready tuned plane and even then you periodically need to redo it. If you don’t know what you are doing, read blog posts by Paul Sellers. Alternatively, find someone local who will do it for you for a few quid per blade. Gumtree is a good starting point. I’d advise flattening the frog and shoe with plate glass and some sanding paper before you put it to use as well. Once setup, it’s excellent. You’d be hard pressed to see a quality difference between this and a Stanley Bailey plane of old. For the price, it’s laughably cheap for what you get. Just don’t be expecting a plane ready to use out of the box like a number of other reviewers.

For the price of £12 to £13, this is plane offers a lot of 'stuff' for the money. Nice handles. But how does it perform? I suspect this is mostly down to the luck of the draw. Out of the box, the plane took a shaving. Not a fine shaving, but a shaving good enough to plane some wood. Good enough to trim a door or some other basic DIY carpentry tasks. The iron (blade) sharpens up OK and the steel is not overly soft. It is not anywhere near as good as a vintage Stanley or Record iron but it will last long enough for the times when a DIYer needs a plane. The sole was nice and flat and the sides were square. Flat enough and square enough to not have to resort to lapping. The problem was with the 'frog', the part that holds the iron. I could not retract the iron into the sole. It is possible to adjust the frog on 'Stanley' type planes by removing the iron, loosening the two screws that hold the frog to the sole and adjusting the screw which sits just under the brass adjustment wheel. I had to back mine off almost as far as it would go. Convention says that this is not the thing to do for a fine 'smoothing' plane, which is what a No. 3 and No.4 sized plane is. That this opening (throat), when the iron protrudes through the sole, should be quite tight - not much larger than the thickest shaving you intend to take. Some say that this doesn't matter as the cap iron compensates for this. My experience with this plane is that it does not take as fine a shaving as a vintage Stanley no. 4 and I think this is due to the quality of the steel used in the iron and reduced opening of the throat. At first, I thought the iron was too long, so I ground it back 1/4" which was double what it protruded. This 'quick fix' made no difference, so I knew it was a problem with the frog assembly. After looking at the parts, it seemed that the problem with the Faithfull plane was that the small rectangular opening on the cap iron into which the adjustment yoke fits (the yoke is the Y-level that sits on the brass adjustment wheel) was in the wrong place. It was too high and thus forcing the cutting edge to be too low. I had to use a small file to file the hole lower, then cut up and shape a large washer to fit into the top of the enlarged hole in order to make the rectangular hole lower on the cap iron. The iron now retracts into the sole and the frog has been adjusted as far forward as it will go (which is not as far forward as a Stanley/Record). A No. 3 plane iron is 1 3/4" wide whereas the more common No.4 and No.5 irons are 2" wide. It is thus much harder to find new or used spares for a No. 3 plane. I couldn't find a cap iron on auction sites that didn't cost more than this plane cost me. In summary, the plane I purchased had a good sole - flat and square. The frog was OK but couldn't be adjusted further forward than flush with the sole. The cap iron was a disaster. However, if you want a plane for basic DIY tasks or for getting started in wood working and your hands and arm strength would benefit from a plane that is lighter to handle than a No. 4, this is a good purchase and might be better than taking a punt on something from an auction site which might be for sale because it is a messed up example of someone's attempt to restore a vintage plane who ended up making it useless. If I wanted a No.3 for use as a super fine smoothing plane, the one I got fell short (another one might not - pot luck?). You should take it out of the box and check to see that the iron retracts into the sole, if not return it. Obviously I wanted one to see what it was like and to tinker with it for hobby reasons. Due to the wide mouth opening etc. I have decided to set mine up as a scrub plane rather than a smoother.

I just fancied a #3, something a little lighter than my Record or Stanley #4's. £12.49 this beauty cost me. The first one didn't turn up, I suspect lost in the rush running up to Christmas, but the replacement arrived within 48 hours by courier. Can't fault Amazon in this respect. Anyway. If you're considering buying this be aware that, as with ANY hand plane, even an £800 Veritas or Ashley Isles, some fettling and fine tuning will be needed. If you don't realise this then ask someone who does to do the job for you or look on YouTube for instructional videos - there's loads of them. Please don't come on here like all the idiots who just slag off the product for not being ready to use out of the box. So, out of the box this bargain basement plane is impressive. It feels solid, well built and nicely balanced. The sole is within a few thou so plenty flat enough for precision work (who works to that sort of tolerance in wood?). The blade needed a quick skim over the whetstone and a final polish with 400 grit and 1200 grit wet and dry paper. About 15 minutes fettling and it was good to go. Shavings are consistently wafer thin and the blade, although only 2.35mm thick, is sturdy enough to tackle hardwood and maintains it's edge reasonably well.

Très bon produit

Very fast delivery, easy to setup and easy to use it.

I gave this five stars because it is a great tool for the money. It took a little bit to get to me because it came from England. I checked all the surfaces with a machinist square and a straight edge. The edges are perfectly 90 degrees, the flats are pretty flat but not dead flat (which they don't need to be). I sharpened the blade on my Tormek so it was razor sharp and polished it to a mirror shine (in my experience the mirror finish helps it stay sharper longer and it feels nice). The furniture is very nice and coated in some kind of poly. While I own some higher level tools like Veritas and this tool is not to that level I feel they don't need to be. This tool works just as good overall in my humble opinion. The No.3 is smaller than the No.4 (Stanley numbering system) and I find it very handy when smoothing on small work pieces/surfaces or in tight spots. Plus it fills a hole in my collection. Making wood shavings with my planes is the most favorite portion of the work and I find it to be a very good stress reliever. If your budget is a little smaller, you don't want to refurbish vintage planes, or you just want a robust plane that work hard this is a great buy. All planes need to be sharpened either up front or eventually (everyday). So I don't see that as a negative at all. With that point in mind, these planes are great because you don't pay a huge amount and you can put a little money toward a sharpening system which is so vital to all your cutting tools. Sharp tools just work better no matter what the name on the tool is. That is my two cents. Enjoy and good luck.

Muy buena herramientas lo garantizo

No podia creerme que por este precio tuviera esta calidad,funcion perfectamente sin haber rectificado nada,muy manejable,tengo un stanley premiun y es mucho menos manejable,gracias a los comentarios me decidí a comparlo,de otra forma ni me lo hubiera planteado por la marca poco conocida,si los otros cepillos de esta marca funcionan como este, por el precio me planteo compra alguno más.Gracias por publicar los comentarios son fundamentales.